So Elian has gotten to the age where he is simply loving being outdoors. Whether he is playing with his sandpit on our patio, running up and down his Bampas child friendly garden being chased, going up and down the slide in the park or simply taking a lovely walk along the river path with Opie, he is just so much happier when he is outdoors. My little wild child at heart!
With the summer months finally here and the weather heating up (ever so slightly at least!) we can finally start making more plans to explore outdoors and spend some family time in the garden. But many of us don’t exactly have a child friendly garden, in fact gardens can be fairly dangerous places for small children.
Ours most definitely wasn’t a child friendly garden when we moved in, open to a fast flowing river, broken fencing, steep bank path with no steps, no fence around very high raised patio area…a nightmare of child safety issues. Some of it still isn’t, but we are making a few small alterations to make it safe and more fun for the little man.
Here are a few ideas on how you can make your garden lots more child friendly and child fun at the same time.
- Get some garden toys – Elian’s current favourite is his sand and water table and his slide. Adding a few toys relevant to your kids age range is a great way to make your garden more inviting to them.
- Use artificial grass – If you only have a small space but you still want a lawn, or you like the idea of a nice green lawn but don’t want the upkeep consider artificial grass instead. It can be a great cost effective and time effective way to have a lovely green lawn all year round.
- Put up a fence – Mainly for safety, but paint it bright and colourful to make your garden pretty all year round.
- Add coverage from the sun – Try to add a sun cover to one area of the garden so when the sun is high you have a shaded area to play or just relax. Try a large parasol, a tent, a garden sail, a garden gazebo or maybe a more permanent summer house
- If your garden is bordered by other houses add privacy with some tall every green trees. There are plenty of different trees you can use, depending on your space, soil type and needs, try this website for lots of options.
- Low Level seating or picnic table – Having somewhere you can sit as a family and enjoy the outdoors over a meal, or simply to do some craft or colouring in the sunshine is a great bonding experience.
- Sink a trampoline – Trampolines are fun for all the family, even big kids (assuming you get one with a good weight range), but sometimes getting on and off them, can be a little dangerous for little ones, so consider sinking it into the ground so it lays flush with your grass. Here’s a good tutorial on how to sink a trampoline if you want to try it yourself.
- Put up a Wendy House or a mud kitchen – Help expand your little ones imagination by encouraging role play through a wendy house or mud kitchen.
- Anti-slip decking – A nice decked seating area is perfect for somewhere to have a morning coffee or an al fresco lunch, but making sure its anti-slip means it’ll be safe to walk on all year even when it gets wet
- Child friendly flowers – There is a huge multitude of flowers you could plant in your garden, even with the unreliable British weather, but here are 50 plants that are perfect for a child friendly garden in the UK.
*This is a collaborative post*